Between its Jefferson County and North St. Louis County branches, Arsenal Credit Union (Arnold) shredded 10,100 pounds of paper and collected 16,401 pounds of electronics during recent shred/recycle events for members.

“Not only did members benefit by keeping their confidential documents out of the hands of identity thieves, so did the environment because none of the paper or electronics collected will end up in a landfill,” said Arsenal VP Ken Moser. "We are happy to be able to expand our shred day beyond paper documents to include electronic items. It’s a great service that our members love and appreciate."

According to information provided by American Document Destruction, a professional shred company that Arsenal used, the 5 tons of paper that were shredded onsite and later recycled into new paper products saved 85 trees, 35,000 gallons of water, 16.5 cubic yards of landfill space, 10 barrels of oil, 20,500 Kilowatts of electric (4,100 kilowatts can power an average house for 6 months) and a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 5 metric tons of forest carbon equivalent.

A professional electronics recycling company was also on site at both locations to help members get rid of clutter from their homes. Anything that had a plug or ran on batteries was accepted. Items containing sensitive information, such as computer hard drives, were destroyed on the spot.